I flew from Sydney to the BVI and while it took less than two days it felt like 4 - while the BVI are wonderful, unless you have 4 days or more spare for travelling then the Seychelles are probably your best bet, even in late December. I haven't sailed the Whitsundays but they are supposed to be beautiful?

I did it once, over 30 years ago, as (get this) 'chaperones' and skippers for a bunch of prep school kids on spring break--3 boats, 19 high-schoolers, and 5 so-called 'adults' (wife and I, at 27, were the 'old geezers').

Good steady easterlies, mostly-sheltered waters, "by eyesight" navigation, and close-by harbors make this place popular.

Those memories will last forever. i did it on the cheap, but it's worth it even if pricey.

farcry and nolatom sounds like you have had a wonderful time at BVI, that's one of the things that makes it attractive, its a once in a lifetime opportunity.

But you're right about the distance zanshin, it is making us lean towards the other two destinations, we are only going to have a 10 day charter so we'll be spending half the holiday commuting.
We have sailed in the whitsundays and tonga which are both fantastic but were looking to try something else.

The BVI are awesome, but as an East coaster (US) it is an easy trip for us, been there 5 times. I am exactly the opposite of you Nibsoe. I am contemplating the long trek to Tahiti and would love to cruise the Whitsundays someday. If you decide to come out to the BVI know that Christmas week is the most popular and expensive. I have not been there at that time for that reason but I have been there in both the high, mid and low season. I am a mid season kind of person. A lot of stuff is closed in low season, the weather is not great and it has an abandoned feeling in some locals. The high season is very crowded, which some people love. The night life is awesome. I like mid season because it is a good compromise. Plus I cant stay up that late anymore . I do not want to discourage a Christmas trip it will be great, but busy.

About you side of the world. I just recently started a topic asking for advice for chartering in Tahiti. I would be going in their high season , July. It is just how it works out, Although I do not think crowded anchorages will be a problem because there are probably only 50 boats for charter in Tahiti. Here is what I learned, unfortunatly I haver not gotten feed back from two forums I have posted on yet, so if anyone can advise please do so.

On Raiatea the three main players from what I found , Moorings (most expensive from my quote) , Sun Sail and Tahiti Yacht Charters (least expensive). The islands of Raitea, Taha, Bora Bora and Huahine are all accessible in a 7-10 day charter. Very few guides are written on the area. I have the one from the moorings, very brief and one other from Charlies Charts really for cruisers but some good info. In the end I found info scarce.

By choosing to post the reply above you agree to the rules you agreed to when joining Sailnet.
Click Here to view those rules.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the SailNet Community forums, you must first register. Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.Please note: After entering 3 characters a list of Usernames already in use will appear and the list will disappear once a valid Username is entered.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.